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New Braunfels Herald Zeitung (Newspaper) - January 14, 2001, New Braunfels, Texas
Butts out?
Residents speak out about smoking ban./6A
Wild things
Bring your backyard to life this winter./! C
New Braunfels
Chinese New Year
Book reviewer helps you celebrate./l DA
SUNDAY January 14, 2001
44 pages in 5 sections
____ 44 pages in 5 seem
Herald-Zeitung
r
Vol. 150 No. 55Serving New Braunfels and Comal County since 1852
$1.00
They’ll toot their own horns at inauguration
CHRIS PACE/ Herald-ZeitungFormer NBHS students Crystal Garcia and Andrew Gray will perform with their college bands at the inaugural parade.
By Jennifer RodriguezStaff Writer
It doesn’t always take an act of God to bring an Aggie and a Longhorn together.
On Thursday, it only took the inauguration of a president.
Two former New Braunfels High School students — one who plays for the University of Texas Longhorn Band and the other who performs with the Fighting Texas Aggie Band — will march with their respective bands in
President-elect carefully preparing inauguration speech/8A
Billy Graham won’t make trip to Washington, D.C./8A
Inauguration schedule/8A
the inaugural parade in Washington D.C. Saturday.
Things remained civil when Texas A&M freshman Andrew Gray and Uni
versity of Texas at Austin freshman Crystal Garcia reunited to discuss their plans Thursday.
The drawn-out election made inaugural plans sketchy, but both students said they knew before they signed up with their bands that they might get to perform for a new president.
“We’d been hearing rumors that the Aggie band would go if he won/’ baritone horn player Andrew Gray said.
Gray has played his instrument sinceSee INAUGURATION/8A
Growth leaves city with many issues to tackle
By Jennifer Rodriguez Staff Writer
Affordable housing and development restrictions could help determine whether New Braunfels development continues to grow or slows to a crawl.
With two rivers, rolling Hill Country landscapes and prime real estate between sprawling San Antonio and Austin, New Braunfels has been like a beacon to a wave of people escaping urban sprawl and tight housing markets.
“I think the climate for development is good,” D. Lee Edwards, owner of D. Lee Edwards Realty, said. “Theres a little concern about what the stock market’s doing. Interest rates coming down helps.”
So far, the increase in development has climbed steadily. During the past five years, the number of plat applications for subdivision development has risen, New Braunfels Planning Director
Harry Bennett said.
“As far as building permits, we’ve seen a significant increase,” Bennett said. “Last year we did about 282 new home starts. This year we did 397.”
Residential development has taken off on County Line and Klein roads, where proposed development listed on the books now could bring about 6,900 more people in the next five years.
“We’re going to see a significant increase in population increase with all that activity...” Bennett said. “So we’ve seen an interest in that area.”
The entire region between and around the Austin-San Antonio corridor is experiencing similar growth. As those cities try to handle growth, population surges could spill into outlying areas, Bennett said.
“We’re seeing development occur probably at a higher rate than most (other cities),”
See GROWTH/5 A
H-Z launches new look
The Herald-Zeitung is introducing a new paper size and design starting today.
New Braunfels’ newspaper is converting to 50-inch web paper, which is becoming the industry standard for daily newspapers.
Surveys show readers find this size easier to handle while they eat breakfast and drink their coffee.
To accommodate the new size, the Herald-Zeitung has been redesigned to present more news in a more reader-friendly format.
One change local readers
might notice is the move of Heads Up to the local news page, typically on Page 4A.
“We also have expanded our sports agate page to include more news and statistics for our sports fans,,” managing editor Margaret Edmonson said. “And we have moved a news briefs package to Page 2A to provide more news than before.”
If you would like to comment about the new look, call 625-9144 or send e-mail to [email protected] com.
Inside
Abby..........................
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Classifieds.....................
.1-12D
Comics.......................
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Crossword..................
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Forum..........................
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Local/Metro.................
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Movies..........................
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Obituaries....................
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Sports.........................
...1-3B
Today...........................
2A
www.herald-zeitung.
com
Key Code 76
Bulverde votes on consolidation with Bulverde NW
By Ron MaloneyStaff Writer
BULVERDE — Bulverde voters will decide Saturday whether to consolidate Bulverde Northwest into their community.
lf they do — and the mayors of the two cities believe that is the likely outcome — Bulverde will become a city of about 4,200 residents and IO square miles sitting astraddle the crossing of U.S. 281 and Texas 46.
This election could be the final of a
series of votes going back to 1997. Four Bulverde subdivisions incorporated themselves into little communities called Bulverde North, Bulverde South, Bulverde East and Bulverde West and then merged into each other by early 1999.
The elections took a fast-growing area of western Comal County and incorporated it to protect it from outside interests, namely San Antonio. A major impetus for the incorporation of Bulverde was apparent planning in San Antonio to expand northward.
San Antonio’s ETJ now reaches into Comal County. How far it will reach into Kendall County Is the subject of an appeal pending over the “Boerne Wall.”
San Antonio Mayor and former planning director Howard Peak has hotly denied those territorial ambitions.
Now, Bulverde and its government wrestles with growth issues of its own. Bulverde Mayor Bob Barton seeks to protect Bulverde’s relatively See BULVERDE/4AWhat’s Up
■ WHAT: Bulverde consolidation election
■ WHEN: From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday
■ WHERE: Bulverde City Hall, Suite 236, the Bulverde Marketplace, 30070 U.S. 281 North.
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Fishy business
TJ’s owners transform former burger joint into shrimp house
By Ron Maloney
Staff Writer
You’ll smell the salt air and just about see the seagulls out the windows past the mounted sailfish and the great white shark.
Familiar family fishing trip photos adorn one wall.
There are fishing poles and fishing tackle, and there’s quirky, kitschy fishing paraphernalia.
A boat that was salvaged Nantucket seashore is suspended from the ceiling.
Guests eat fried or broiled, fresh-breaded seafood or slurp down oysters the way they were meant to be eaten: raw, on the half shell.
A few of the customers who filled the place Friday slugged back beer.
If you listened just a little amidst the din of a new restaurant running at full tilt, you could hear the seashore — and the salts sharing fishing stories.
You’re not on the north shore of Long Island, in Newport or New Bedford.
You’re in New Braunfels, and you’re eating at Jellyfish Joe’s, a new mom ’n’ pop seafood joint just like the locals eat at near backwater coves and bays where the chain
K. JESSIE SLATEN/ Herald-Zeitung
Above, Jelly Fish Joe’s Co-owner Julie Asher (center) serves customers while husband Joey minds the grill on the restaurant’s opening day. Left, Joey Asher checks out orders coming off the grill opening day.
restaurants just can’t stay afloat.
And it’s in a very familiar location a long way from shore — right where TJ’s was on Seguin Avenue.
And theres a reason for that: the place belongs to Julie and Joey Asher, who own TJ’s and moved it out to Loop 337 a few months ago.
The Ashers haven’t been able to go fishing much lately because their success as local restaurateurs has
limited their spare time. So their photos, their trophies and their gear line the walls of their latest restaurant.
“Before we got so busy, we used to go fishing once a year,” Joey said.
He points to the six-foot sailfish mounted high on a wall.
“Julie caught that in Mazatlan two
See BUSINESS/5A
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